{"id":290589,"date":"2023-09-13T22:22:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T22:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=290589"},"modified":"2023-09-13T22:22:23","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T22:22:23","slug":"bryan-robson-we-are-witnessing-someone-special-in-jude-bellingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/bryan-robson-we-are-witnessing-someone-special-in-jude-bellingham\/","title":{"rendered":"BRYAN ROBSON: We are witnessing someone special in Jude Bellingham"},"content":{"rendered":"
When you see Jude Bellingham for the first time, you find yourself checking his age. When I saw him for the first time, I did just that.<\/p>\n
He was a 16-year-old playing for Birmingham City in the Championship. He was a man in a boy\u2019s body. Now, as a young man, he has everything \u2014 athleticism, stature, vision and skill. We are witnessing someone very special and it\u2019s all the better because he is wearing an England shirt.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t tell you how disappointed I was when he did not sign for Manchester United.<\/p>\n
I knew when I kept going back to watch him at Birmingham that he was going to be a top, top player. I met him and his parents, Mark and Denise, with Sir Alex Ferguson, Eric Cantona and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We did what we could to persuade him to come, but ultimately he chose Borussia Dortmund because the family believed they could give him a quicker pathway. I\u2019d like to think we would have done that at United, but who can argue with his choice now?<\/p>\n
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Jude Bellingham (middle) has been lauded following his man-of-the-match display against Scotland on Tuesday<\/p>\n
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Gareth Southgate’s (right) side defeated Scotland 3-1 in Glasgow, with Bellingham (left) scoring and providing an assist for Harry Kane<\/p>\n
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The 20-year-old (pictured) is continuing to impress both for his club, Real Madrid, and England\u00a0<\/p>\n
The maturity and discipline he had to show surviving as a young boy playing and living in Germany gave him invaluable life skills, ones that this summer the family felt had equipped him for a move to a club as huge as Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
When you see Jude\u2019s decisions on the pitch, they are born from this football education. He had to toughen up in the Championship, be disciplined in the Bundesliga and now he has to show flair and speed of thought with Madrid.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sure even his father\u2019s profession, that of a police sergeant, has rubbed off on his temperament. We saw at Hampden, he\u2019s so good that opponents are targeting him now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That will happen \u2014 if defenders can\u2019t keep up with you, they\u2019ll wind you up. Whether that\u2019s a push, a flick, a pinch or something sneakier, Jude knows, as a police sergeant would, you shouldn\u2019t be baited by it.<\/p>\n
Learning from serial winners at Madrid such as Toni Kroos and Luka Modric will serve to improve him further.<\/p>\n
The only limit on what he can achieve with England concerns the players around him.<\/p>\n
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England are now unbeaten in their last six games, with their last defeat coming to France at the 2022 Qatar World Cup<\/p>\n
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Bellingham has been pivotal in that and since signing for Real Madrid he’s been in flying goal scoring form, netting five times in his first four matches<\/p>\n
Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n
We had high hopes before with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, David Beckham and Paul Scholes. All great talents, but they didn\u2019t gel.<\/p>\n
This team are benefiting from players being put in the correct positions. Bellingham revels in the freedom of a No 10 role and Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips are the perfect foils.<\/p>\n
But please don\u2019t call this a \u2018Golden Generation\u2019. I hate that term. Save the branding until they win something, because that\u2019s what they must deliver and, with Bellingham at the heart, they have every chance.<\/p>\n
Win a trophy, then his name will sit comfortably alongside any England great.<\/p>\n
It’s All Kicking Off\u00a0is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season.<\/span><\/p>\n It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify<\/span><\/p>\n Your browser does not support iframes.<\/p>\n